Questions remain but McCarthy pleased with Irish position

Mick McCarthy admitted that his side were wasteful and that there were questions to be answered following the narrow victory over Gibraltar, but overall the Ireland manager was more than happy to be heading off on his summer holidays with ten points on the board.

Ireland lead Group D at their midway point of the campaign, and currently sit five and six points clear of rivals Denmark and Switzerland respectively.

But of course, the table does not tell the full story as the Danes have played a game less, Switzerland have only played twice and the two sides have also gone head to head in a game that finished 3-3.

The victory at the Aviva Stadium saw Ireland complete the double over Gibraltar, but once again, McCarthy's side struggled to dominate the Iberian side, who were the lowest ranked side in the group.

The manager acknowledged after the game that his side did not play as well as he would have liked they were unable to put the game out of reach until the 93rd minute of the game when Robbie Brady’s header sealed the 2-0 win.

Yet the manager appeared unperturbed by the situation and can now look forward to the games against the aforementioned duo with the manager confident that his side tends to play better against better teams.

"I was frustrated with the game. I'm not frustrated with the lads," said McCarthy at the post-match press conference.

"I'm a bit frustrated that we didn't stop them playing, they had a bit too much for my liking.

"Our stats were 30-odd shots, amazing crosses. We were just profligate, wasteful with the final pass."

"It’s interesting that we played pretty poorly against Gibraltar twice, and beat them.

"Against the better sides who don’t want to sit in and want to play, we’ve had two really good performances.

"So I doubt Switzerland will come and play like they did, it will be a more open game."

McCarthy would not pin-point why his team wasted chances or failed to show enough composure in the final third until he has watched the game back, considering the dominance that they showed in terms of possession.

And the manager also conceded that the team had strayed from the game-plan in the first half, attempting to play through a crowded midfield.

"We'll work at it, we'll continue to work at it – but I'd have taken 10 points beforehand.

"When I look at it again, when you’ve had that amount of shots crosses and balls in the box, I’d like to have scored more goals.

"So I’d liked to have scored more so yes, we weren’t as good as the players would have liked to be, they were disappointed."

"We shouldn’t have been trying to play through the middle [in the first half], that wasn’t the game plan."

Aside from sitting top of the table with ten points in the bag, the manager was also able to take other positives from the performance, most notably the partnership forming between captain Seamus Coleman and Callum Robinson.

"I thought Callum Robinson was excellent in the game and I had to take him off because he had’t been playing, as he had a terrible hamstring injury."

RTÉ.ie is the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland's National Public Service Broadcaster. RTÉ is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. Images courtesy of Sportsfile and Getty Images